Healthy Entertaining (3 delicious recipes)!

I don’t know about you, but Christmas in my house is all about the food!

While it is important that we aren’t so deprived that we avoid all of the less healthy tasty morsels floating around, if you have a lot of social gathering happening, it can be useful to have a few healthy AND delicious ideas up your sleeve.

3 Top Tips for Healthy Entertaining:

Portion size: with a large spread of choices floating around, it can be easy to take one of everything (and come back for more!). Practice some mindful eating strategies like focusing on the different tastes or textures and checking in with how your hunger levels are changing whilst eating.

Vamp up the vegetables: fibre and vitamin filled vegetables can be prepared in so many different ways to change their textures or flavours. Find some fun ways of incorporating more vegetables in what you bring to a potluck!

Add a lean protein: Protein-rich foods keep our stomachs fuller for longer. Smoked salmon, thin slices of lean beef or pork, chicken, tofu and legumes like chickpeas can be used in creative ways.

3 Healthy Canape Recipes

Roasted grapes with ricotta, pinenuts and honey on a seeded cracker

Ingredients:

• Seeded crackers

• 500g of seedless grapes (green or red or a mix)- picked off of stems

• 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar

• 1 tablespoon of olive oil

• Salt, pepper to season

• 1 teaspoon thyme or rosemary- dried or fresh is fine

• 250g of ricotta

• 3 tablespoons of pine nuts- toasted

• Honey to drizzle

Method:

1. Heat oven to about 200 degrees Celsius, line a tray with baking paper
2. On baking tray toss grapes in vinegar, oil, salt, pepper and herbs
3. Arrange crackers on platter and put a teaspoon of ricotta, topped with 1-2 grapes, a sprinkle of pine nuts and drizzle in honey

What is good about this:

• Grapes are packed full of anti-oxidants

• Wholegrain, seeded crackers are a high fibre option with some healthy fats

• Ricotta has calcium and is a naturally lower fat cheese

Sweet potato rounds with guacamole topped with cherry tomato

Ingredients:

• 1 long, sort of skinny sweet potato sliced into 2-3 mm thick rounds (leave skin off but clean well)
• 1 teaspoon of each spice: ground coriander, cumin, paprika
• Salt and pepper to season
• Olive oil
• 1/2 a punnet of cherry tomatoes- sliced
• 1 avocado
• 1 lime (or lemon)
• Optional: 1/2 a garlic clove
• Optional: A tablespoon of finely diced red onion
• Coriander leaves to garnish

Method:

1. Heat oven to 180 degrees and line baking tray with baking paper
2. Toss sweet potato rounds in 1/2 a teaspoon of each of the spices, a drizzle of olive oil and salt/pepper to season
3. Put rounds in a single layer on the tray, bake for 15-20 minutes or until cooked through and slightly crunchy on the outside
4. Make the guacamole: Scoop out the avocado from the skin and mash with the juice of 1 lime (or lemon). Add in the other half teaspoon of the spices. Add in the garlic if you like it and season with salt/pepper.
5. Lay out the sweet potato rounds on a serving platter. Top with a teaspoon of guacamole, a slice of cherry tomato and garnish with the red onion and coriander leaves if desired.

What is good about this:

• Sweet potato is a low GI carbohydrate (i.e. is a carbohydrate which slowly breaks down into sugars- this is better for managing blood sugars). It is also high in nutrients like vitamin A.
• Avocado is a healthy, unsaturated fat and high in potassium

Crunchy Cucumber with Creamy Whipped Sundried Tomato Fetta

Ingredients:

• 1 cucumber
• 200g fetta (I used the softer, creamier Danish variety)
• About 150-200g of cream cheese- I used low fat
• 130g container of semi sundried tomatoes (drained of oil)
• Optional: pepper, balsamic glaze, dried oregano or fresh finely chopped basil

Method:

1. Slice cucumber into 3mm thick rounds, place of serving platter
2. In a bowl, beat together the fetta and cream cheese. Add the cream cheese into the fetta a little at a time. You want the main taste to be fetta with the cream cheese just adding the creaminess.
3. Roughly chop the semi-sundried tomatoes and mix through the fetta mix. Season with pepper and herbs if desired.
4. Put a generous spoon on each cucumber round and drizzle with the balsamic glaze if desired.

What is good about this:

• Using cucumber instead of a cracker is lower calorie and carbohydrate
• Mixing oil with cooked tomato enhances our absorption of some of the nutrients in tomato